Executive Outlook
Great GMs
are made,
not born
With billions of
dollars at stake,
and owners and
fans watching
their every move,
leaders who
become pro sports
GMs need mentors
and a chance to
develop to succeed
www.kornferryinstitute.com
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The toughest job in pro sports.
“The training to become
a general manager has
to be based largely upon
mentorship and practical
experience, and we really
are falling short on both
counts.”
– Bill Polian, former general
manager of the Indianapolis
Colts and member of the
National Football League
Hall of Fame
There may well be no tougher job in professional sports than general
manager. In the past decade, as the four major North American
professional leagues—Major League Baseball, the National Football
League, the National Basketball Association, and the National
Hockey League—have seen revenues and profits soar, the role of the
general manager has become more complex, more challenging, and
exponentially more stressful. Increased media attention, fueled by the
relentless 24-hour news cycle of cable television, the Internet and social
media, has put general managers under intense, unprecedented scrutiny.
The job, once an unheralded backroom post handled in relative
obscurity by former players, is now tracked and analyzed with such
precision by fans and the sports media that job security has dropped
precipitously. In an environment where winning is tied inextricably
to the bottom line and the general manager is spending the money
of often-impatient billionaire owners, there is no place to hide and
little tolerance for extended periods of futility. Of the top 25 general
managers in sports, as chosen by Forbes magazine in 2007, only
five remain in their jobs today. Given that professional sports is in
the midst of a financial golden era—according to a 2013 report from
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the combined pro sports revenue will
reach nearly $68 billion by 2017 (up from $53 billion in 2012), an annual
growth rate of 4.8% —there is an urgency for general managers to win
and build stable franchises immediately.
In this report, we explore the shifting role of the general manager and
consider the daunting challenge of developing talented and effective
GMs. We believe that successful general managers must be developed
by having access to strong, experienced mentors; by placing themselves
in an environment where they have opportunities to handle multiple key
disciplines; where there is collaboration and open communication; and
where there are opportunities to advance into bigger roles that enhance
their careers.
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A winning general manager creates alignment. The overarching key is
to create alignment around philosophy, style of play, type of players,
embrace of technology and comfort with collaboration with ownership
and head coaches. Successful general managers understand that the
job is ultimately about creating hope for the fan base. It is not only
about generating enthusiasm and winning, but also about generating
sustainable revenue streams built upon promising and delivering a team
that has, at the very least, a chance to win it all.
Our focus will be on addressing these questions:
Are general managers born or are they made?
G
Given the expanded nature and complexity of the job, should
franchises or leagues be instituting formal internal general
manager development programs?
G
Considering the uniqueness of the job, can it even be taught?
G
How difficult is it to find alignment in the modern professional
sports arena?
G
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
A Bit of History.
Prior to the era of free agency and astronomical player compensation, general
managers were out of the spotlight, working to find talent and sign contracts
while toiling in the shadows of successful coaches. For some dynastic teams, such
as Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers and Red Auerbach’s Boston Celtics, the
head coach doubled as general manager. Neither Lombardi nor Auerbach, both
of whom were superb talent evaluators as well as coaches, would have deigned
to allow a general manager to dictate personnel decisions. Such hybrids still
exist today—Bill Belichick, head coach of the four-time Super Bowl champion
New England Patriots, for example, serves as de facto general manager of the
team, in charge of all personnel decisions—but they are a rare breed. Belichick’s
predecessor, Bill Parcells, once famously voiced his desire to Patriots owner Robert
Kraft to be granted such authority. “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least
they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries,” Parcells suggested. Parcells
left the team soon after. Only the most successful coaches are afforded the
opportunity and few find success wearing both hats.
With the advent of free agency, massive expansion and multi-billion dollar
television deals, the general manager’s job description changed forever. General
managers today must be bright, insightful talent evaluators, financial wizards,
data savants and deft people handlers and communicators both internally and
externally. In a job where a vast majority of the players and head coaches earn
more than the general manager, dealing with both on-field and off-field crises
generated by an array of eclectic personality types is a daunting but pervasive job
requirement. Even in the business world, where public companies dance to the
pressures of quarterly earnings statements, there are few positions with similar
pressures of a sports general manager.
“The general manager has to be smart, self-confident, both publicly and privately
with owners, have an academic orientation, but also be telegenic,” said Billy Beane,
the longtime general manager of the Oakland Athletics who became famous
as the protagonist in Michael Lewis’s bestseller “Moneyball.” Beane learned the
trade under Sandy Alderson, who is given credit for ushering in the new breed of
general managers in baseball. Alderson has a degree from Dartmouth, a Harvard
law degree, and is also a former officer in the US Marine Corps.
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4
“The general manager has to be able to build an all-encompassing vision,” Beane added.
“Working with Sandy Alderson was an exceptional experience because he wanted his
management team to learn every aspect of the business and he really didn’t want you to
be focused solely on baseball; he wanted really smart, well-rounded people.”
Across several professional leagues—e.g. the NBA and MLB—a wave of promising young
general managers with impressive academic credentials has emerged over the years.
But there remains a significant gap between excellence and mediocrity in this crucial
position. Success often depends more on the acquisition of a superstar athlete than on
an impressive management skill set. Navigating the turbulent salary-cap waters, making
often-risky bets on long-term contracts, free agents, building a potent team on the field
as well as off the field humbles even the most talented aspiring GMs.
Ironically, given the importance of the general manager position, there remains little
formal training and preparation for the job. The development of successful general
managers is more art than science, and every franchise handles its front office
differently but “An uninterrupted and qualified pipeline of coaches and front-office
personnel is essential to the long-term sustainability of our game,” said Troy Vincent,
the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations. The GM job is far more
than an aspiration; it is an integrative learning experience built over years of exposure
to the front lines of a given sport. In surveying a sampling of general managers, we
encountered a range of philosophies and strategies for identifying and developing
prospective team executives. There are individuals such as Alderson, Bill Polian and
former Green Bay Packer general manager Ron Wolf, who took seriously the task of
encouraging and mentoring young prospects. The impact of their efforts are seen in
the number of disciples who emerged as general managers for professional franchises.
But remarkably, few teams have embraced this philosophy, preferring to create
specialists in individual disciplines rather than generalists with broad skill sets.
Further, recycled general managers tend to be a rare breed. (See Figure 1.) Unlike
coaches and managers, who, regardless of their results, often land in other equivalent
positions, general managers tend to get one shot at the top spot. Clearly, success
breeds success, and many team owners poach front office talent from the halls of
winning franchises, a formula with spotty results at best. A glittering resume doesn’t
always translate into success on the playing field. How many promising new hires
turned out to be disappointments or outright failures? Important questions emerge for
current and aspiring general managers in professional sports.
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
5
Figure 1
Recycled General Managers as a rarity.
NFL General Managers
Category
Number
First-time General Manager
30
Recycled General Manager
2
Games
played
Wins
Winning
percentage
0.938 3,296
1,780
0.540
43
0.336
Wins
Winning
percentage
%
0.063
128
NBA General Managers
Games
played
Category
Number
First-time General Manager
23
0.767 11,583
6,394
0.552
Recycled General Manager
7
0.233 2,992
1417
0.474
Wins
Winning
percentage
%
MLB General Managers
Games
played
Category
Number
First-time General Manager
22
0.733 20,934 10,669
0.510
Recycled General Manager
8
0.267 6,890
3,396
0.493
Games
played
Wins
Winning
percentage
%
NHL General Managers
Category
Number
First-time General Manager
19
0.633 8,018
3,833
0.478
Recycled General Manager
11
0.367 6,407
3,538
0.552
Wins
Winning
percentage
%
Cross League Comparison
Games
played
Category
Number
First-time General Manager
94
0.770 43,831 22,676
0.517
Recycled General Manager
28
0.230 16,417
0.511
%
8,394
What is the role of the general manager in this complex era of professional sports
management? Is there an earnest effort by front offices to identify and develop
general manager talent within these organizations? Is there a preferred pathway to
success for general managers? Is a stint with a successful organization and ties to a
highly successful individual enough to warrant a shot at GM? Are the days of former
star players ascending to the front office now numbered? Is the general manager
as we’ve come to know him a dying breed, a relic of a bygone era being replaced by
teams of quants, salary-cap specialists, data analysts and media stars?
6
Are General Managers
born or made?
Steps to GM success.
To excel at the GM role,
candidates should:
Work with and study a
mentor who has had a wide
breadth of experiences.
G
Work in an environment
where they are exposed to
multiple disciplines.
G
Select a collaborative
organization with an open
and transparent culture.
G
Exert amenability—be
willing to do anything
and be engaged with
employees.
G
Develop a skill set that
differentiates them from
their colleagues.
G
Seek crucial experience in
three years of a full cycle—
draft, talent evaluation, free
agency, player development,
negotiations, etc.
G
Leadership is a quality associated with an innate talent for
influencing a group of individuals to pull together toward a common
goal. Warren Bennis, the late author and leadership guru, wrote that
“leaders learn from others, but are not made by others.” Great leaders
tend to be born with a never-ending curiosity and desire to learn.
They possess an ability to communicate their vision and inspire others
to follow it. In that way, leaders are born to lead. But that is just
the foundation. “The process of becoming a leader is similar, if not
identical, to becoming a fully integrated human being,” Bennis wrote.
In the complex environment of professional sports, an aspiring
general manager has no chance of success without these in-born
characteristics. But beyond that necessary foundation, the skills
required to handle the job today must come from exposure to
experienced mentors who believe deeply in the need to develop a
next generation of talent.
“In the past, the GM needed to have played the games, bloodied their
knuckles and bloodied their nose,” said John Schuerholz, president
and former general manager of the Atlanta Braves. “The GM job today
is much more sophisticated. It involves player analysis, a statistical
component and softer skills such as getting a feel for the players. It’s
also essential that GMs have a lively intellect.”
When Brian Burke, president of operations for the Calgary Flames,
joined the Vancouver Canucks front office in 1987, “the room was full
exclusively of former players.” General managers who hadn’t played
the game were rarities. Burke was one of the first when he became
GM of the Hartford Whalers in 1992, and, as he recalled, “I was about
as welcome as a porcupine in a balloon party.” The landscape is very
different today. “Everything is more sophisticated and you, as an
executive, need to be more sophisticated.”
Alderson, now the general manager of the New York Mets, pointed out
that working closely with people is more valuable than a curriculum or
syllabus when it comes to developing quality front-office people.
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
“We have what we call ‘the lunch bunch,’ ” Alderson said. “It’s not a formal
staff meeting but we get together and we talk about such things as the first
day of a homestand, the first week of the season. It is just about having lunch
and talking about things and having everybody there, including the interns. I
try to be collaborative. I encourage collaboration throughout the organization,
and involve as many people as possible and engage people in specific issues
across as broad a base as possible.”
R.C. Buford, the general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, agrees. The Spurs
have won four NBA titles under Buford’s stewardship, plus one in 1999 when
he was assistant GM. He is a proponent of leading by sharing the knowledge.
“We expose our interns to every different area possible,” Buford said. “I think
our people are more diverse today than they were before because there
are more pieces to deal with. For example, you have analytics, performance
training, growth, social media, player development, and salary-cap
management. We can’t have 25 people all doing the same thing. We try to
distribute information across platforms in our group, whether it’s face to face
or different forms of distribution.”
One general manager, who chose not to be identified, noted that his success
has been built upon “a combination of mentorship, timing and displaying
confidence and taking responsibility.” He noted that when he came up
in the front office, staffs were small compared to today, and thus he had
an opportunity to do many different types of jobs. “There wasn’t a lot of
intellectual firepower in most baseball front offices, so I was able to dip
my hand in a lot of things,” he said. He got first-hand lessons in player
development, administration, contracts, the draft and many other critical tasks.
“Whatever 20% of my boss’ job that he didn’t like doing, I found a way to do
it for him, and that led to a couple of things,” he recalled. “It made him better
at his job because he could focus on the aspects that he really enjoyed. And it
made him trust me because he could see that I was able to get that part of the
job done and it led to greater responsibilities. If you want an expanded role,
then do more than is asked of you.”
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This general manager noted that when he got his first GM job, he did
something different. “We created a really flat landscape where there was
a hierarchy in terms of decision- making—I had to make the decisions in
the end—but we had an environment where anyone could ask anyone
else questions, where you could walk into anyone’s office—an intern
could walk into the GM’s office—and it wasn’t seen as unusual. He could
call me out on something if we disagreed. We had a departmental motto
‘We don’t know shit’ and it meant we didn’t know all the answers. In
sports, if you think you have it all figured out, you’ll get humbled in a
hurry.” Over the past decade, three different employees in that front
office have gone on to become general managers.
The one requirement that cuts across all sports and all organizations is
passion. Developing general managers is predicated on an unquenchable
desire to be completely immersed in the effort.
“You could not work for us unless you had a passion for it,” said one
general manager. “You couldn’t work for us unless you were willing to
stay until the wee hours of the morning, unless you got along, gave as
much grief as you took. The atmosphere was very collegial, and you
couldn’t work for us unless you had your own perspective and found a
way to contribute.”
To that end, people developed a broad outlook rather than being pigeonholed into amateur scouting, or player development, or major league
operations. “Everyone got involved in everything,” he said. “There were
no secrets, so the most gifted amongst them rose to the top and became
general managers. But it wasn’t anything intentional.”
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
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Should teams institute a formal
GM development program?
The Seattle Seahawks, a franchise that won a Super Bowl in 2014 and
came within one yard of winning a second in 2015, has developed a
keen understanding of how to bring success to the playing field.
John Schneider, the Seahawks general manager, has worked closely
with head coach Pete Carroll to make the pieces fit and produce the
rewards on the field. Together, they have concluded that creating
a more formal development program for the general manager and
other front-office staff is a way to ensure success for the future.
Successful GM
characteristics.
To excel at the GM role,
candidates should be:
Intelligent and confident—
be able to justify decisions.
G
Active learners—always be
engaged in the process.
G
Anticipating future trends
and understanding how to
successfully navigate the
landscape.
G
“It’s going to be just as important for us to develop front-office
people as it is to develop coaches, and we are going to put more
emphasis on it,” Schneider said.
Willing to be completely
immersed in their role.
G
As part of the development process, the Seahawks seek to balance
out an individual’s skill sets so that someone who is strong at talent
evaluation, for example, can also become adept at communications
skills. Organizations that are looking for general managers who
manage in a general way rather than be pigeon-holed into a specific
role, must find ways to create a learning environment for all frontoffice personnel, from interns to executives. To that end, Schneider is
initiating a job-sharing type of environment for Seahawks personnel
directors—splitting time in the office, interacting with coaches and
players and forcing people to become more of a community than
individual specialist.
Eager to teach and mentor
others with the goal of
developing their staff.
G
An advocate for a
transparent environment—
be willing to expose your
staff to the draft process,
free agency, negotiations.
G
Delegating tasks, hence
empowering their team to
perform.
G
Exhibiting a mindset that
enhances new ideas and
constantly develops new
talent.
G
“There aren’t coaching clinics for personnel guys,” Schneider said.
“You can be a great talent evaluator but you also have to know how
to manage and lead people. Some damn good evaluators have really
struggled as player personnel directors.”
Citing mentors such as Wolf, Schneider noted the impact of
exposing people to a lot of different disciplines. “People he trusted,
he gave a lot of exposure to a lot of things,” Schneider said. “We
were all involved in meetings. Why wouldn’t you want to have your
professional staff in on your draft meetings? It’s another set of eyes.”
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Despite the obvious, the resistance to development programs is widespread. In the
National Hockey League, for example, only one person per team is allowed to attend
the league’s general managers’ meetings. Calgary’s Burke has advocated for the past
15 years to be allowed to bring the assistant GM to the meetings, to no avail. “I think it’s
absurd,” Burke stated. “I think we should be training the next wave of general managers
now. We have no formal training procedures. There’s no other business in the world that
turns businesses of this size over to people who have just gotten their learner’s permit.”
Under Mark Shapiro, now the president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays, the front office
of his former club, the Cleveland Indians, long was dedicated to developing front-office
skill sets.
“Every intern is hired with the intent that someday they could be a general manager,”
Shapiro said. “We have a process with our interns that we are looking for young guys
to come in here and make us better right away; not to do data entry, not to file away
scouting reports, but to have a skill set that differentiates themselves, that demonstrates
initiatives, and that will contribute and add to our front office immediately.”
According to Shapiro, the process is two-pronged. The first part is selection.
Prospective interns are hired after an intensive selection process. After resumes
are combed, a four-page questionnaire is sent to those deemed worthy of further
consideration. The questionnaire is customized to fit any particular internship and
respondents are judged on critical reading skill, writing facility, and an ability to express
themselves. Phone interviews follow and the final top two or three candidates are
invited in for rigorous face-to-face interviews. “Believe it or not, that is the process to
hire an intern making $20,000 a year,” Shapiro said. “If you look back internally here and
throughout baseball, it’s been worth it because we’ve developed a lot of high-potential
people,” including Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels.
The second aspect of the development process is understanding the organization’s
culture. Given that the Indians are in the 19th-largest television market in the country and
last year had the second-worst average attendance in baseball, Shapiro is clear about the
team’s challenges. “The only way we can overcome those challenges is with incremental
efficiencies and contributions across the entire organization,” he said. “And we don’t care
where good ideas come from or where the work comes from. We are inclusive and flat
in the way we run meetings and attack our challenges. Whether they are solving issues
with a player, doing video work, scouting processes, we don’t tend to pigeonhole or stick
those guys in a closet. We include them in meetings to try to help solve our problems.”
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
The constant exposure to seasoned professionals in various disciplines coupled
with hands-on involvement in critical functions tends to be more potent than
finishing an MBA program at a business school. The key aspect for these fasttrack interns in Cleveland is that they are encouraged to not only do a deep
dive into a specific discipline like scouting but to get hands-on exposure to
everything. An intern “will be involved in all the conversations so that he is
never conducting his job in a vacuum,” Shapiro said.
For the Kansas City Chiefs, General Manager John Dorsey tries to blend
“old school and new school” into the process. Another Wolf protégé, Dorsey
initiated a formal mentoring program within the front office when he joined the
organization in 2013 after spending most of his career in scouting and football
operations with the Green Bay Packers. “I have always been a huge proponent
of the mentoring program. I include everyone in the process. The way I look at
it, one day, I may not be here and somebody better be ready to help.”
To that end, Dorsey exposes his front-office team to the entire draft process.
He has done the same with free agency, negotiation, and understanding the
salary cap and its implications. “I was taught about the cap by Ron Wolf and
I have tried to expand upon the importance of the cap and how it has played
such a dynamic role. It takes three years to expose somebody to the whole
process. But I feel that if I left the Chiefs right now, we would be protected.
We have young guys in developmental stages where if something happens to
the guy ahead of them, they are ready.”
In his first season in Kansas City, Dorsey led the franchise to an 11-5 record,
completing the greatest turnaround in team history, rebounding from a 2-14
record the previous season. Dorsey was named Executive of the Year by the
Pro Football Writers of America.
“My role is to make sure that everything is smooth for the head coach from an
operational standpoint,” he said. “To make sure they get the best players and
make sure we have the balance of the cap correct. I have a service mentality
and I think you have to teach.”
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Can it be taught?
Business acumen.
For GMs to excel it is key
for them to:
Understand the asset
value of talent.
G
Work cooperatively with
the owner, coach/manager
regarding the appropriate
allocation of money
for player salaries and
acquisitions.
Today’s general manager cannot operate with a “business as usual”
mindset and expect success. The game, whatever sport it is, changes
constantly, and if a team has had an edge, in most cases others will
catch up quickly. Dynasty-like success, such as the San Antonio Spurs,
San Francisco Giants, and New England Patriots, is extremely rare.
New ways to gain an advantage must be attained
G
Value revenue-generating
employees on the business
side of the organization.
G
Have the appropriate
knowledge of an income
statement and how this
information translates to
the profitability, or bottom
line, of the organization.
G
“You can’t fall in love with any one system,” said one MLB general
manager with multiple World Series rings. “A system is good in that
it means you have anticipated different variables, you’ve thought
through things broadly, you have developed strategies. But if you
get stuck in a system, you’re doomed to fail.” Success is built upon
constant redevelopment, constant anticipation of the next new
thing and trying to crush the competition. “The right mindset with
any executive is to first understand the landscape and then figure
out how to dominate it,” he said.
Powerful, but can this be taught or developed? For Bill Polian,
a Hall of Fame general manager who had great success in three
NFL cities, the answer is yes, but with a caveat: It is far tougher to
sustain such success and develop front-office talent than it used
to be.
“We had a formal development program where we would take
them through various jobs and most importantly, give them
exposure” to many different aspects of the organization, Polian
said. “We gave them projects where they would do things that
were outside their area of responsibility.” A college scout, for
example, would research contracts in the off season; a pro scout
would research trades and the draft. “We tried to prepare them,”
he said. “I don’t think there are a lot of teams that do that.”
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
As general manager of the Buffalo Bills, Polian put together a team that made
it to four consecutive Super Bowls (though without a victory). He took his
skills to the expansion Carolina Panthers and built a team that nearly made it
to the Super Bowl in its second season of existence. In Indianapolis, serving as
both general manager and team president, Polian rebuilt the team through the
draft, and with Peyton Manning as quarterback, the Colts won the Super Bowl
in 2006.
According to Polian, the main impediment to talent development is a lack of
longevity and the increased pressure to win. “Everyone is fighting for their lives
week in and week out, so there is far less time these days to formulate a plan and
to evaluate people,” he said.
Identifying promising, emerging talent is difficult when front office staffs have
become far larger and job stability is reduced as teams constantly poach the best
and the brightest. Unlike the military, which has formal programs to identify and
promote talent, professional sports leagues have failed to successfully implement
educational programs.
When front offices were smaller, there was a lot to be done and fewer people
to do it. So individuals were given more opportunity to a have a broad-based
experience. Polian pointed out that “nothing compares to sitting down with a
mentor and asking ‘Why did you make this move’ or `Why are we doing this?
What is your thinking?’” Getting those answers in real time, while the battles are
swirling around you, creates the most powerful learning environment.
“Not all teams can do that,” he said. “It happens less these days. The league puts
far more burdens on people than ever before and they are far more centralized.
People tend to get more directives from the league office than they do from the
general manager’s office.”
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Barriers to development.
The mentor role.
Successful GMs boost others by:
Exposing their staff to every
aspect of the business and
giving them a variety of
projects.
G
Their willingness to share
knowledge, empower, and
delegate responsibility
across staff.
G
Holding informal staff
meetings that encourage
collaboration on a variety
of topics.
G
Creating a learning
environment for all frontoffice personnel.
G
Fostering a transparent
culture—keeping everyone
informed throughout the
process.
Today, silos of specialties tend to keep people locked into a single
discipline and cut them off from getting a broad, general managertype education. If someone is working at a Silicon Valley tech
startup or a major corporation, a specific education foundation is
presumed; how good an engineer can you be? Can you write good
software code? Can you run an accounting department? For sports
general managers, the educational background rarely matters, but
the training to become a successful executive must be based upon
mentorship and practical experience “and we are really falling short
on both counts,” Polian said. “It’s not a lack of talent, it’s a lack of
systemic identification.”
For John Dorsey, it’s also a lack of will. “The one component I
think we have gotten away from in the league is that nobody
teaches anymore,” he said. “Ultimately, you have to teach as well
as lead. If you can’t teach and lead, you are not accomplishing
your role. People can be developed.”
G
Encouraging and promoting
new ideas and creativity from
all employees.
G
Having a strong belief that
teaching is a primary way of
developing talent.
G
Danny Ferry, former general manager of the Atlanta Hawks and
a former player, had the good fortune of joining the front office
of the San Antonio Spurs, arguably the most successful NBA
franchise over the past 15 years. He had been general manager
of the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he also had the serendipity of
drafting LeBron James, who transformed the Cavs from also-rans
to one of the elite teams in the league. Ferry’s first stint in San
Antonio came in 2005 just after he retired as a player.
“There was no development program there,” in San Antonio,
Ferry said. “We had a small group and everyone was a part
of every discussion. In San Antonio I was literally exposed to
everything. It was a very collaborative environment, and in the
end, it made me more prepared to see everything with a better
understanding of what the business side goes through.”
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
Ferry continues to advocate for creating an atmosphere without what
he calls “specials.” The quest for stability in a front office is predicated
on winning, and prospective general managers “are not going to get an
opportunity unless you come from a winning program with a name. You’re
not going to get an interview if you don’t come from a good program that
has won. You have to be around a culture of winning and a certain way of
doing things, one where you can absorb and learn.”
The only way to develop within this environment is go through the cycle
of a full year with a strong program, “and the more cycles you go through,
the better understanding you have of it,” he said. Ultimately, Ferry said, the
aim is to emerge as a leader. The best GMs make a conscious decision to
develop strong leadership qualities, Ferry said, but wanting to be a leader
and actually emerging as a strong one are not the same.
And therein lies the most ambiguous of challenges: How can you know
when someone is ready? For Thomas Dimitroff, the general manager of
the Atlanta Falcons, the answer lies in a strong belief in the processes and
systems the Falcons have put in place to run the front office. In a business
where bright young talent can quickly be out the door in pursuit of a better
offer, Dimitroff believes in the “next man up” philosophy. If an individual is
offered a job elsewhere, “we can go back and get new and fresh ideas from
some of the new and younger guys that are moving into those positions. I
believe there is always someone to step up.”
The skeptic asks: What if they are not ready? To which Dimitroff replies,
“If someone tells me that, I say ‘You weren’t ready.’ I know I wasn’t ready
for this job. Let’s not kill ourselves overthinking this. If you train some of
these younger guys, someone is ready.”
The successful general manager must embrace the concept that strong
leadership includes mentoring, a dedication to empowering and delegating
that has practical as well as altruistic reverberations. “Part of leading is
making sure that we are empowering and delegating properly so that
when we need someone to step up, they are ready to go,” said Dimitroff.
15
16
When former general manager Dave Dombrowski became general
manager of the Detroit Tigers in 2002, he was considered the wunderkind
embodiment of the new generation of GMs. He became general manager
of the Montreal Expos at age 31, then the youngest GM in the game. He was
president and general manager of the Florida Marlins, then served as the
president, CEO, and general manager of the Detroit Tigers. Now, at 58, as
president of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox, he is wary that
he and other front-office staff who are that age and older are becoming
impediments to a next generation of leaders.
“You don’t want people to become stale,” Dombrowski said. “You want
people to be driven, to keep moving on and getting better—and a lot of
that is growth. If you are growing people and all of a sudden, you don’t
have that next step for them because somebody good is already in it, it is
incumbent upon you to allow them to pursue another job. If you are not
careful, if you don’t work in young talent—even though they might make
mistakes as youngsters—you might suddenly wake up and your ball club
will be old and you won’t be good anymore.”
While at the Tigers, Dombrowski constantly reminded his staff that young
blood is essential to the organization. “We need new ideas, we need fresh
development, because they will make us better too,” he said.
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
Alignment
What becomes clear after assessing the role of the modern general manager
is that the single most important element for winning in professional sports
today is the alignment between ownership, the front office and the coaching
staff. General managers faced with discord between these constituencies tend
to struggle in their quest for success.
For example, a growing rift between Los Angeles Angels General Manager
Jerry Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia created such friction between the
front office and the dugout that Dipoto resigned. Dipoto reportedly was
upset at Scioscia’s unwillingness to embrace the analytics Dipoto wanted to
incorporate into the team’s strategy. Whatever the explanation, the burden
of disharmony at this level of professional sports adds immeasurably to the
already difficult challenges of winning a championship.
Indeed, a look at many of the most successful sports franchises in recent
decades illustrates how crucial such alignment is to winning. When the Green
Bay Packers earned their way to a 1997 Super Bowl victory, coach Mike
Holmgren and General Manager Wolf were on the same page. Under Wolf and
Holmgren, the Packers posted an NFL best record of 48-16, won the division
three times, went to two Super Bowls, and made the playoffs six consecutive
postseasons. Wolf often said that what made the team special was how
meetings between him and Holmgren were tightly focused on what was best
for the Packers. Keeping eyes on the prize and forgoing personal goals was
the basis for an aligned vision that paid off handsomely.
The success of the small-market San Antonio Spurs is due in no small part to
the alignment between Coach Gregg Popovich and General Manager Buford.
The pair has been tightly linked together in terms of strategy and personnel,
and owner Peter Holt has given them free reign to structure the team. Under
their watch, the Spurs have been innovative, consistent, and well aligned in
terms of personnel, playing time and the sustainable culture that underpins
the team. Under Popovich and Buford, the Spurs have won four NBA titles,
a remarkable run in the modern NBA. Recently, their Hall of Famer Tim
Duncan continued to take a salary reduction so the team could sign LaMarcus
Aldridge. This unselfishness creates a special culture that is the utopia of
successful sports franchises: Unlike the Lakers, where Kobe Bryant chose to
take as much money as he could make, Tim Duncan chose to do what was
best for the organization.
17
18
Even after losing free-agent superstar Albert Pujols and Hall of Fame manager
Tony LaRussa, the St. Louis Cardinals haven’t missed a beat in their success on
the field. Alignment between the ownership, front office and coaching staff has
kept the team on a winning road.
For the Chicago Blackhawks, a long-suffering NHL franchise, new ownership
coupled with the addition of a new team president who is in synch with
the general manager and head coach has resulted in three Stanley Cup
championships in the past six years. The close connection between Seattle
Seahawks GM Schneider and head coach Carroll is unprecedented in the current
NFL. Schneider’s role is to find a Seahawks-type of player that Carroll covets and
bring him into the fold. The pair is committed to the development of front-office
personnel to create long-term success for the franchise. Under Schneider and
Carroll, the Seahawks have been to two consecutive Super Bowls.
The old-time GM—former players’ only club—is certainly a dying breed, if not
already gone. But the formula for developing the next generation is fraught with
issues that are singular to professional sports. A seemingly perfect resume is no
guarantee of success. The elusive run to a championship is dictated by so many
factors that are beyond the control of any one individual; the very reason that
sports captivates a global audience as it does is due to the very vagaries and
uncertainties of the game.
In the NBA, for example, conventional wisdom dictates that a team must have
three superstar-level players to hope to compete for a title. In the NFL, an all-star
quarterback is a must, and in baseball, a team without an ace pitcher has little
chance of winning a World Series. But even that formula is flawed. Injuries to key
individuals, a lack of chemistry in the clubhouse, a badly timed losing streak, can
undermine the best-laid plans. The Boston Red Sox finished last in 2012, a team
in disarray and angst, managed to win the World Series the following season with
a group of bearded over-achievers, and then finish dead last again the following
season. General Manager Ben Cherington has certainly lost a lot of sleep trying
to decode what went wrong, what went right, and what went wrong again.
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, is a
proponent of analytics and technology in the search for success in today’s
NBA. A graduate of MIT’s Sloan School of Business, Morey is a member of
the new breed who has embraced the idea of aligning his front- office team
to evaluate talent acquisition. “You have to get experience understanding
analytics in evaluation,” he said. “In our talent evaluation, it is a group decision
with a lot of people involved. We spent a lot of time making sure we get
everyone involved in the process.”
We are on the cusp of an era in which the sports general manager’s role is
in a state of flux like never before. Having the skill and authority to create
the proper alignment within an organization is table stakes to the game.
Given the demands of winning, evaluating talent, asset valuation, player
chemistry and ability to lead, the profile for a successful general manager is
nearly impossible to fulfill. And yet, every season in every sport, candidates
emerge and are named to teams—and the majority are fired within five years.
It is disappointing, a result of too few skilled mentors available or willing to
develop the next generation of general managers.
19
20
Conclusion
General manager is not a position for the faint of heart. The influx into some sports of highly educated,
versatile, data-driven young executives is reshaping the general manager’s position in dramatic fashion.
New general managers who emerge as winners will be those who are self-motivated, intellectually
curious, have a non-stop work ethic, the ability to evaluate talent and a leadership style that can inspire
internally and externally. Finding the right fit with the head coach and owner will continue to be the
biggest puzzle that must be solved in order to be successful in this role. (See Figure 2)
Figure 2
The success combination.
In analyzing combinations regarding the sequence of hiring the coach or general manager first,
the most successful circumstances occur with an entrenched coach or GM with a philosophy that
has been successful and ingrained in the organization. An incoming coach or general manager
must adapt to the incumbent, so there is alignment in vision down to the players and up to
ownership. In any other scenario, success takes longer; with the demand on winning instantly,
longevity is not afforded by many owners or the media for unsuccessful performance on the field.
NFL Super Bowl Champions 2010-2015
First Years to Win
Tenure
Stint
1st Title
Year
Champion
GM
Titles
Head Coach
2014-2015
New England Patriots
Bill Belichicik
x
2
15
4
Bill Belichicik
2013-2014
Seattle Seahawks
John Schneider
x
4
5
1
Pete Carroll
2012-2013
Baltimore Ravens
Ozzie Newsome
x
1*
13
2*
John Harbaugh
2011-2012
New York Giants
Jerry Reese
x
1
8
2
Tom Coughlin
2010-2011
Green Bay Packers
Ted Thompson
x
6
10
1
Mike McCarthy
Titles
Head Coach
NBA Finals Champions 2010-2015
First Years to Win
Tenure
Stint
1st Title
Year
Champion
GM
2014-2015
Golden State Warriors
Bob Myers
x
3
3
1
Steve Kerr
2013-2014
San Antonio Spurs
RC Buford
x
1
13
4
Gregg Popovich
2012-2013
Miami Heat
Pat Riley
x
17
20
3
Erik Spoelstra
2011-2012
Miami Heat
Pat Riley
x
17
20
2
Erik Spoelstra
2010-2011
Dallas Mavericks
Donnie Nelson
x
9
13
1
Rick Carlisle
Year
Champion
GM
Titles
Head Coach
2014
San Francisco Giants
Brian Sabean
x
14
18
3
Bruce Bochy
2013
Boston Red Sox
Ben Cherington
x
2
3
1
John Farrell
2012
San Francisco Giants
Brian Sabean
x
14
18
3
Bruce Bochy
MLB World Series Champions 2010-2015
First Years to Win
Tenure
Stint
1st Title
2011
St. Louis Cardinals
John Mozeliak
x
4
7
1
Tony La Russa
2010
San Francisco Giants
Brian Sabean
x
14
18
3
Bruce Bochy
Year
Champion
GM
2014-2015
Chicago Blackhawks
Stan Bowman
2013-2014
Los Angeles Kings
Dean Lombardi
2012-2013
Chicago Blackhawks
Stan Bowman
2011-2012
Los Angeles Kings
Dean Lombardi
2010-2011
Boston Bruins
Peter Chiarelli
NHL Stanley Cup Champions 2010-2015
First Years to Win
Tenure
Stint
1st Title
x
x
x
1
6
Titles
Head Coach
3
Joel Quenneville
6
9
2
Darryl Sutter
1
6
3
Joel Quenneville
6
9
2
Darryl Sutter
5
9
1
Claude Julien
GREAT GMS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
21
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the leaders who kindly shared their time and insights for this report:
Sandy Alderson
General Manager
New York Mets
Dave Dombrowski
President, Baseball Operations
Boston Red Sox
John Schuerholz
President
Atlanta Braves
Billy Beane
Vice President and General Manager
Oakland Athletics
John Dorsey
General Manager
Kansas City Chiefs
John Schneider
General Manager
Seattle Seahawks
RC Buford
General Manager
San Antonio Spurs
Danny Ferry
Former General Manager
Atlanta Hawks
Mark Shapiro
President and CEO
Toronto Blue Jays
Brian Burke
President of Hockey Operations
Calgary Flames
Daryl Morey
General Manager
Houston Rockets
Troy Vincent
Executive Vice President
of Football Operations
National Football League
Thomas Dimitroff
General Manager
Atlanta Falcons
Bill Polian
Former Vice Chairman
Indianapolis Colts
Author
Jed Hughes
Vice Chairman, Global Sector Leader, Sports
212.973.5864
[email protected]
Andrew Montag, research associate,
Global Sports Practice, contributed
to this report.
About Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry is the preeminent authority on leadership and talent.
For nearly half a century, clients have trusted us to recruit worldclass leaders. Today, we are their partner in designing organizational
strategy and developing their people to achieve unimaginable success.
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About The Korn Ferry Institute
The Korn Ferry Institute, our research and analytics arm, was established
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© Korn Ferry 2015. All rights reserved.
GGMSL2015